Crappy Blackberry Storm Just Good Enough To Stop Verizon Subs From Switching To AT&T/iPhone (AAPL)

Research In Motion (RIMM) says its new BlackBerry Storm is hot. What that really means is the Verizon subs are absolutely desperate to buy a smartphone and finally have an option that isn’t terrible.

Storm is Verizon Wireless’ best-selling phone, and RIM can’t make them fast enough to keep up with demand. More important: Some 75% of new Storm owners are new BlackBerry subscribers — not old customers upgrading from a Curve or Pearl.

These are the exact same people — not already loyal to the BlackBerry platform — whom Apple would love to court, too. But it can’t, because they’re currently on Verizon. So Apple’s only hope is that the Verizon smartphone option is so bad that loyal Verizon users swallow their pride and switch to AT&T. It appears the Storm may have cleared that low hurdle.

So some of the Storm’s success is inevitably coming at Apple’s (AAPL) expense. Probably not enough to make Apple miss its December quarter iPhone numbers — especially as it fills Walmart’s (WMT) inventory — but perhaps enough to notice.

Have you passed up an iPhone to buy a Storm? Or vice-versa? Why? Let us know in comments, or get in touch via our anonymous tips form.

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